MCM London Round Up

MCM London was a bigger hit than usual this year. The London comic (and video game, and television, and anime, and movie, and…) con hit a record 110,197 attendees over the weekend of October 24-26, breaking the record they set back in May.

It’s no surprise, as cosplayers aside, there was an overwhelming amount of stuff to see at MCM this time around. Luckily, GameGrin has some long suffering, heroic staff who’re willing to report back on some of the highlights:

Resident Evil HD Gameplay Demo

Con goers got a blast from the past--specifically 1996--with Capcom’s Resident Evil HD panel, where voice actor D.C. Douglas (Albert Wesker) and UK community manager Neil Gorton demoed the game for eager fans. Eighteen years and four console generations later, the original Resident Evil’s still got it according to Capcom. The HD version looks to be a bit of a mix between old and new; while the studio has re-recorded the dialogue (including removing chunks in some instances), players can expect the same puzzles from its GameCube remake.

Attendees posed some questions about the upcoming Resident Evil: Revelations 2, which Capcom has split into four downloadable episodes Walking Dead-style. Gorton explained that the company saw a lower price point and 2-3 hour length as a good way to bring in new fans and some skeptical older ones: “So even if you’re not sure, you can pick up the first one, give it a go, see if you like it, tell us.”

Douglas also answered several questions about his work on upcoming titles and as the fourth voice for the iconic villain. The actor revealed he’d done facial capture for Resident Evil 5, which was tricky as Wesker is not exactly known for his wide emotional range. In terms of actually taking over the role of Wesker back during The Umbrella Chronicles, Douglas confessed that the character’s voice is something he’s still working on, although later games have given him the chance to put his own spin on the character.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity Demo

Lucky attendees who were willing to queue for it got to be some of the first in the UK to get their hands on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Players were tasked with taking out the templar Siverte in Notre Dame where, of course, climbing and jumping off rooftops was readily encouraged.

New Batman: Arkham Knight Footage

Bat fans got a new sneak peek of the upcoming Arkham Knight this weekend at a panel by Rocksteady. The panelists confirmed that yes, the Joker is really dead and no, he will not be making an appearance in Arkham Knight, which is set to be the last title in the Arkham series. Instead, Batman will be facing off against the rest of his rolodex of villains in the form of Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, the Riddler and Two-Face.

Arkham Knight will also be introducing a brand new villain called...Arkham Knight. Created in collaboration with comic book writer Geoff Johns, Arkham Knight is designed to be a villain Batman can really go “toe-to-toe” with. But then again, Arkham Knight has a small private army of mercenaries and that just seems a little unfair.

Oracle, the former Batgirl and eternal voice in Batman’s ear, will finally be making her on screen debut as well in Arkham Knight, and Rocksteady has promised some impressive shots of Gotham from her clocktower base.

The panelists also revealed a bit more about the Batmobile, which will finally be driveable in Arkham Knight. Despite being designed to, quite literally, blast through walls and run over street lamps, the Batmobile features an electrical pulse that knocks bystanders and goons safely out and the way and automatically sets its weapons to non-lethal modes.

For the moment, you can check out our Gamescom and E3 previews of Batman: Arkham Knight while you wait for its June 2015 release.

Interstellar Oculus Rift Experience

Ever wanted to go to space? While your chances still aren’t that great, you could have at least pretended during MCM with the Interstellar Oculus Rift experience. The publicity stunt for Nolan’s new film about humanity, space and (physically and emotionally) distant father-daughter relationships sent attendees into the stars. The Oculus Rift experience put con goers on the movie’s spaceship Endurance as it travels through the known universe in search of a new home for humanity.

Of course, like most Oculus Rift demos, the Interstellar experience also involved sitting in a chair in the real world and a rather long queue.